ON CONSUMER AND INDUSTRIAL COOPERATION
Consumer cooperation refers to the association of workers and peasants for the purpose of procuring and distributing the goods they require. Industrial cooperation, on the other hand, involves the aggregation of small farmers or artisans with the aim of producing and marketing a variety of goods—both agricultural products (such as vegetables, dairy items, and the like) and non-agricultural products (a wide range of industrial goods, wooden wares, ironwork, leather goods, and so forth).
Through the substitution of the grain requisition system with a food tax—or, more precisely, a tax in kind—peasants will gain control over surplus grain and will be free to exchange these surpluses for all manner of commodities.
Industrial cooperation will foster the development of small-scale industry, which will increase the supply of essential goods for the peasantry—goods that, for the most part, neither require extensive transportation by rail nor depend on large-scale factory operations. It is imperative that we support and promote industrial cooperation in every possible way, offering it every form of assistance; this is the duty of both Party and Soviet officials, for such efforts will at once bring relief to the peasantry and improve their lot. And it is precisely the improvement of peasant life and livelihood that now holds the key to the revival and reconstruction of the national economy in the worker–peasant state.
Consumer cooperation likewise must be supported and developed, for it will ensure the swift,

SPEECHES. RECORDED ON GRAMOPHONE DISCS
the proper and cost‑effective distribution of goods. The Soviet authorities need only oversee cooperative activities to prevent fraud, concealment from the state, or abuse—but under no circumstances should they restrict cooperative endeavors; rather, they must do everything in their power to assist and encourage cooperatives.
Written on April 25, 1921.
First published in 1924 in the journal “Young Guard”
Nos. 2–3

Printed from a recording on a gramophone disc